Kevin Costner’s growth spurt came a little late for him to realize his childhood dream of a professional sports career, but it came just in time for him to fulfill another dream –acting in some of the best sports movies of all time.

His latest is “Draft Day,” which follows in the cleats of baseball films “Bull Durham,” “Field of Dreams” and “For Love of the Game” and the golf-centered “Tin Cup.”

The 59-year-old actor plays the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, who is under the gun to pull off an extraordinary maneuver during the NFL draft to save his team and his reputation. In the meantime, he is trying to survive a critical period in his personal relationship with his girlfriend, played by Jennifer Garner.

Costner, a two-time Oscar winner for directing and producing “Dances With Wolves” and a graduate of Villa Park High School, is married to Orange County’s Christine Baumgartner.

Q. What is your earliest recollection of watching a sports movie?

A. Probably the first was “Pride of the Yankees.” I loved Walter Brennan, and really loved (Gary) Cooper. It was a very compelling story to me.

Q.Did you believe at the time that sports movies were different from other movies?

A. No. I just remember that I liked that movie. I thought it was emotionally authentic. I also liked Westerns at that age for the same reason. I liked anything that I thought was authentic.

Q. That wasn’t the first movie you ever saw?

A. No. That would have been a cartoon. I remember being in those pajamas that had feet when I saw it.

Q.What was the first sport you played?

A. Baseball.

Q.Did you play Little League?

A. I did. I later played Babe Ruth and high school.

Q. Were you serious enough about baseball to want to play it professionally?

A. I went to four different schools in high school, and in my senior year at Villa Park, I made the team but I wasn’t good enough to be a starter. I wasn’t a great player, but I had a fairly strong understanding of the game. Then I really got my size in college (Cal State Fullerton), but you’re often judged by how good you were in high school.

Q.Do you remember the moment you realized you weren’t good enough to be a professional athlete?

A. Not an exact moment, but as I got stronger in college and didn’t make that team, I understood. But I never lost the feeling of wanting to compete, and later, when we were filming “Bull Durham” and I got out there with the guys, I felt stronger and bigger and wondered what might have happened if I had stuck with it.

Q.How did that feeling translate to acting?

A. I didn’t want to have that same feeling twice in my life. I didn’t want to wonder if I could have done acting. I’m really happy I pursued acting. I’m glad I walked through that door.

Q. So, there are no regrets that you didn’t open the door to sports?

A. No regrets. There is no guarantee that it would have happened, but I have thought about what might have happened if I had opened that door.

Q. One of my pet peeves in baseball movies is when the hero swings the bat and it’s obvious to anyone who’s played the game that the ball is headed weakly for right field, but the camera switches to the crowd cheering as the ball sails over the left field wall. Your movies always have an air of authenticity to them. How important is that to you?

A. There are a lot of bad sports movies. There are more bad ones than good ones. Some of them are awful.

Q.How much did you push for authenticity in your sports movies?

A. As much I could. I almost had my head handed to me when Shoeless Joe Jackson batted right-handed in “Field of Dreams.” That was really problematic for me. But the movie trumped the detail in that moment. I said this before: Olivier could be our greatest actor but if he couldn’t throw a ball, he couldn’t act it. It’s an interesting thing. You can or you can’t play.

Q. How did you end up in a football movie?

A. Ivan Reitman is a world-class director, and he wouldn’t call me if it wasn’t a good script. And it was a good script – it had a beginning, middle and end. It does what a movie is supposed to do. I was charmed by it and I didn’t know where it was going. I like that in a sports movie.

Q. Your other sports movies managed to appeal to people who aren’t into sports. Is that a concern of yours going into each of these projects?

A. Not a concern. If something reads right to me but excludes a certain audience, I’m fine with that. If it excludes 18-year-olds, I’m fine with that. If it excludes women because it’s a rough subject, I’m fine with that. It’s nice if a movie can hit all the demographics, but movies can really suffer, and some of mine have, when someone tried to make them for everyone. The people who could have loved it the longest just came out thinking it was good and not great. I’ve had five or six movies like that, where the scripts were great and it was not protected.

Q. So, even someone in your position can’t always protect the movie?

A. I can sometimes and I can’t sometimes. If you’re not the director or the producer, you don’t get all the things that you want. This movie I have coming up next is called “Black and White,” and I had to pay for it myself to get it done the way I wanted.

Q.How do you learn to live with that?

A. I don’t live with it very well. I’m haunted by that lack of conviction. I’m haunted by the notion of filmmaking by committee. I could put my foot down and say I won’t promote their movie, but you learn to live with it. But it’s disappointing.

Q. Would we be shocked to hear the names of the movies you were disappointed with?

A. Probably, but it makes no sense to name them. But the last movie I did, “Three Days to Kill,” was a mess. I loved the character but I hated the movie. The producer dictated his own views to the director and turned it into a mess.

Q.And you get through something like that by telling yourself that you have a better movie on the way?

A. You get through it because time marches on, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Q. So why not stop acting and just direct?

A. I guess I always think that other people can do it better than me. I probably will direct more in the second half of my career.

Q.Can you still get excited by a success like the History Channel miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys”?

A. Absolutely. It means a lot to me, and it makes me work even harder to make these things right.

Q. Is that a responsibility to the audience or to the art?

A. To both. You start alone with something, and while you understand that you’re making something for people, it’s important that it pleases you. I put the audience on my shoulders, but I don’t cater to them.

Q.Why haven’t you directed more movies?

A. People always give good meetings. I always think they understand the story and know what they’re doing. But they don’t always know how to maintain the power of their principles all the way through the project.

Q. Is there a movie of yours that you’re proud of but that you feel people didn’t get?

A. “A Perfect World” is one. I thought “Swing Vote” was a fun movie. I like “Mr. Brooks” a lot.

Q.Do the choices you’ve made in your career make sense to you?

A. I probably should have done the whole sequel thing. It’s one way to stay current. It’s one way to boost your money. It’s one way to stay highly visible. And it’s one way to maintain a long-term relationship with a studio. I’ve had five or six movies that people wanted to turn into sequels, but I always chose to move on. That decision probably hurt me as much as anything.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.